My Big Accomplishment

There's this table that we have had since we got married.

We got it at Ikea.  

Anyone else out there in love with Ikea???  

I could spend a substantial amount of time there!  These days I usually walk out with an apron and a box of drinking straws, but still...it's nice to look.

Well when we were married the closest Ikea to our college was about 6 hours away and no one had really heard of it yet in our small po-dunk part of the world.  So we borrowed Nick's dad's truck (did I possessive that right???) and headed off to the great land of Ikea.  I had things circled in that catalogue like people had never circled before.  After all, we were setting up our home as a married couple, I felt like a lot rode on this.  Well, as much as can ride on people who find shopping at Ikea an extravagance.

Oh how far we've come!

So we bought pretty much everything from Ikea.  Bed, dining room set, rugs, kitchen ware, lamps, and last but not least, this table.  It was our coffee table.  Very sleek and modern.  Aside from our bed and our dining room table it was the biggest piece of furniture in our first apartment.

Nick hated it there...we'd always whack our shins on the corners due to there being hardly any room to walk  around it in the shoebox we called home.

Then we moved to a bigger apartment in the city and it was great!  When we moved to our house it was used to hold the TV....we was all fancy!

And lastly when we finally, finally, FINALLY could afford a flat screen we hung that puppy above the fireplace and moved the coffee table up to the third floor.

For a long time it was just a place where I could take pictures for my ebay-ishness.  But since we've been homeschooling, we've been using it for that.  It's a great place to play games, do crafts, just sit and think.  Whatever.  It's all Japanese-ish of us as we sit on the floor on mats, but we like it.

And until now (at least this year) it's been holding all of my ju-hunk.

As in, there is no way any one will ever be able to use this table, you couldn't even see it.  Ugh.

Until now my friends...until now.



It's cleaned off!  The Christmas business has been put away!  The books have been refiled, spilt beads cleaned...it's all off and waiting to be trashed again, I'm sure.

It's the little things around here that make me feel accomplished.  I know, it's not much, but it's one area in our home that I have tackled.

Now onto the other 99.9% of things .....

Happy Birthday Baby Bear

Today our youngest, Calvin, turns 5 years old!

I cannot believe he is 5!

I love this picture.  Is there anything cuter than a little one in mouse ears?  I don't think so friends...

This little one has been our biggest challenge.  From not talking to Autism, we have been over whelmed and over joyed with all God has given us.

I call Cal our a-word kid.  No I don't think he's an a**!  But see what I mean?

Apraxia
Allergies
Asthma
Autism
Aspergers

That's been the progression of his diagnosis.

And one day, in 8 years we will deal with the big A...

ADOLESCENCE!!!

Oh goodness!

For now I think I'll enjoy our five year old, who still insists I call him baby bear, loves to snuggle, build, imagine, and can do a mean grover impression.

Happy Birthday Baby Bear!  I am so utterly blessed to be your Momma.  You take my breath away...

Homeschool Angels: How God Provides for Our Needs

These past couple of days have included a lot of organizing around our house.  I am sure that it has been that way around your house too. 

There is a reason afterall why all of the sales flyers have nothing but organizational supplies on sale. 

Well, those and workout gear, right? 

Anyway, one of the things that I have been organizing has been our classroom.  It hasn't been that bad really.  I did have this one pile in a corner though that has been sneering at me for months.  It knew it was better than me.  Driving. Me. Crazy.

So I tackled it.  Well most of it.  And as I was organizing it and filing and putting things with other things and doodads with whose-a-whats-its, I came face to face with the reality of our homeschooling...

We have a ton of stuff.  And most of it I haven't paid for at all. 

Amazing right? 

I am a really good thief..

Just kidding. 

The truth of the matter is that we are blessed.  Knock you naked blessed by God, totally undeserving, blessed folks.  Off the top of my head here are some of things we have been blessed with by whom:

Our neighbor Peggy one afternoon brought over a sack of art supplies, school supplies, beads...all kinds of stuff for art projects. 

Our neighbors Randy and Diane gifted us with a Ginormous box of supplies they used when they had an inhome daycare.  Those are mainly what the one eyed, one horned pile in the corner consisted of.  She gave me so many amazing things!  Art supplies, books of ideas, project sheets with instructions, letter sheets for Cal, wall hangings, the works.  It's all so amazing!  And while I don't think I am using it all as I should be, it has all been such a blessing as there is for example, a volcano project that we are getting ready to use with our science studies.

Our cousin Lisa.  I cannot explain to you all how much I love this woman and her heart.  She gives to our family what her children are done with. This summer she invited me over to look at some books she was going to sell in a garage sale but then decided to give us a crack at first.  I could not believe what "some books" meant.  Boxes and boxes of books.  And of what?  Tons of childrens literature and historical books, a lot of what we would be studying this year.   A lot of the books and educational games you see came from their family.  Lisa was a teacher before her babies came and she has such a good eye for things. 

Garage Sales- this summer I was able to hit up some amazing garage sales early in the morning because my husband faithfully watched the children.   A lot of our math games I was able to snag for some crazy price like $1.00 because I stalked the papers for teachers having garage sales. 

Goodwill-Emma is a model for Goodwill and with that I've been able to talk to some of the big whiggs and figure out the Goodwill system.  You won't find me at Goodwill often, but I do know which Goodwill keeps there stuff at that one store and that one store gets a ton of old school books.  I'm talking sets of Boxcar Children books that have never even been cracked open.  Yes I'll buy those for 25 cents apiece, thank you.

My Aunt Jan-My Aunt never fails to always give the coolest gifts.  One year she gave Emma a cash register and it has fake money and all of the food and signs for a grocery store.  We use that in homeschool to learn about money and to break up the monotony.  This Christmas she gave Emma a book set where you can write a book and then end up having it published and sent to us!  I am so excited for this because Emma has been really interested in the book writing process and has talked about writing a story...this will be perfect for us!   

My Grandma- I'm pretty sure the old lady was dead set against us homeschooling.  Too Granola for her, I'm sure.  But she has seemed to have a change of heart with the way our kids are really learning.  Anyway, she's always calling me with some books she has for me or something she wants to give me or look at.  She has given me a lot of children's literature.  And as you all know, I am totally old school, so reading books from the 60's with the kids is such fun for me!  She also has given me stuff from her pastor's wife that she's passed on to me because 1) she's awesome and 2) because she knows we homeschool.  It helps to get the word out!

The rest of Nick's extended family has also given me so much here and there.  I am so truly blessed by them.  His Uncle has returned from a garage sale with art curriculum from a school, never opened.  His cousin Tracee has given us science kits and chairs and art supplies when we dropped in to say hi. 

Nick's cousin Jodee has given us scads of worksheets and books and so much stuff that we use on a daily basis. 

All in all what this has created for us is a virtual smorgishborg of materials and I could not be happier.  We have so many things to use and so much to look at and work with.  And it's all because of the power of prayer, and these amazing people who have freely given.  If you were mentioned, we thank you from the bottoms of our hearts.  And if you've given us stuff and I've forgotten you, thank you and sorry!!!

I just wanted to share this with you to show you that God will provide!  And you don't have to spend a lot of money to homeschool.  Just pray and trust God and know that He will provide.  I can't wait to see how He shows up in 2013...whatever ways it is you can be sure I will be shouting from the rooftops how amazing He is!

Why, Hello There 2013!

I must admit, I am not a huge New Year's Celebrator. 

Never really have been. 

One of my all time favorite New Years' was when we rung in the new year with good friends watching Mary Poppins. 

Yep, you read that right. 

So if you don't like reading what nerds have to say, you might want to just stop reading now.  Right here.  Here. 

But if you, like me, are somewhat of a dweeb, then you get me and you will keep reading...

Anyway, this year not too much went on for New Years. 

Would you like to know what we did?

Well, my mom wanted to have the kiddos for the New Years so we dropped them off for the night. 

And then we partied...not so much

Then we went and did a little shopping with Christmas Gift cards we had received.  I am way into this kick of "we are getting this place organized and in some sort of shape that we can actually use" so a-shopping we  go. 

We then got some Chinese.  It was yumm-o.

I ADORE Chinese food.  Usually it involves the kiddos fighting over pot stickers and then telling me how gross this food they are fighting over is.  Why do kids fight over food if they think it is gross? 

Then we went home, I wore gross sweat pants (which definitely sets the mood for some bow-chick-a-bow-wow...no?) and then we watched television on the comfort of our couch. 

Next, since I am somewhat of a night owl and my husband worked all day and was tired, I organized and he slept.  I'm telling you folks, this is the stuff marriages are made of!

Truth be told we didn't buy too much in the way of organization except for new plastic containers for food.  That counts somewhat right?  And even though it seems like a small thing, it helped me to reorganize and get rid of the old gross containers that we were still using.  

And since I am stupid I didn't take a "before" picture.  But I did take some after pictures.

This is all of the crap that I threw away or found a new home for.  How in the world did  I accumulate all of this junk?  And how do I always end up with lids that are missing the containers?  How does that happen??? And somewhere I am missing two Popsicle mold stick things.  Do you have them???



Here's the after picture of our container cabinet.  It's so nice and organized and tidy.  Please excuse the ghetto-ness of the wood of our cabinets.  We have over 100 year old shelves, y'all.  I love them by the way...way roomier than new cabinets.


Here's the top shelf...kids containers for foods, glass jars I use, grater, and the blender bottle.  I also kept some of our old ziploc containers for when we have loads of people over for a potluck or something and then I have to have something to send leftovers home with them in.  Now I have these  can use just for that and not getting them back is no big deal.

Here's the bottom shelf.  New containers, some old containers left (there's only 3 there, promise!), more glass jars, and our cutting boards.

I am so excited that I had the umph to get this cleaned!  This is that spot that has been so disorganized for so long.  It was impossible to find stuff and junk would fall out all over the place when you tried to take one thing out.

So there ya go, our remade container cabinet.

I am not a resolution kind of girl but I do like the freshness that comes with the dawning of a new year.  Time to dust off our viewpoint and see everything in a new light and recharge ourselves for life. 

We only have this one life God gives us.  I often get so bored with living the everyday instead of seeing the awesomeness of everything and realizing the potential of things.  That's what the coming of a new year does for this old lady.

So that's what I strive to do when the New Year comes around.  Hope you all have a happy New Year!

Our Christmas

Every year we do some fun things at Christmas.  Make cookies, decorate, celebrate, yada, yada. 
 
Here are just a few pictures from our events...
Here we are with my sisters getting ready to celebrate a little at our annual Ugly Christmas sweater party.  Nick's in a women's sweater that is way too short and when I put mine on I realized I shrunk mine last year because the sleeves are way too short.  I guess it's back to Goodwill to find some new ugly sweaters for next year!  I always am super excited when I find ugly sweaters at Garage sales during the summer. 
 
I guess it's the little things, right? 
This is our tree after Santa.  Emma got a big gift and I was a little concerned that there wouldn't seem to be much under the tree.  I guess my fears were a little silly!
One of our traditions at Christmas every year is that on Christmas Eve we gift them with matching Christmas pjs.  We put them on at my Grandma's house and then on the way home we look at Christmas lights.  When we get them home they're usually conked out with jammies already on and we are good to go for bed. 
Here is Emma opening her "big" gift from us...an American Girl that looks like her.  She has been asking for it for literally a year. This was all she asked for for Christmas. 
She said "Oh, thank you ever so much." 
It was so precious. 
In our stockings she gave Nick and I each $2.00.  She said she had been hoping to get her doll and she was hoping the money would help us out since we'd spent so much on her.  She is just too cute...
 
And we gave the money back in case you are wondering!!!
It's nice to give a gift that they really appreciate.  She still is telling us just how blessed she is and how much she loves it. 
 
She makes me happy.

Calvin always puts this hat on and wants us to take a picture. 
 
Sure cutie, I'll take your picture. 
 
He makes me happy too. 
 
So there you go, some pictures of the fun things we did this year.  How was your Christmas?  Are you still relishing in the holiday like we are???

125 Homeschool Freebies


Head on over to Free Homeschool Deals to see the list they've compiled of the top 125 Homeschool Freebies! 

It's Amazing!  Supurb!  Magnificent!  Genius!!!

Even if you don't homeschool, I bet you could find a lot of things that would be fun to do with your kiddos.  Some of the things that struck my fancy while browsing through the list the first time include:

Lego apps
Polar Express activity pack
and loads of free bible study ebooks

So buzz on over and check the list out :) 


Merry Christmas

A little baby changed our world, all those many years ago.

Haven't been on the computer lately....

too many things to do, cookies to bake, rooms to decorate, laundry to wash...

And in the blur of it all, the power of the baby starts to fade..

And so I have hushed the whirls of activity to concentrate on the baby.

The Christ Child.

The King of Kings.

Because He makes everything glorious.

I love Him and all that He has done for me.

Now I look to see what He calls me to do.

I pray you find God's peace this Christmas.  And if you don't know how please ask.  I'd love to help you.

Merry Christmas dear friends and a very blessed New Year!!!

5 AM

This morning I woke up at 5 am to make cookies for an event because I forgot to last night. 

Nothing like starting the day trying to get caught up with junk you forgot to do, right? 

But in the quiet minutes of waiting for cookies to bake, I sit and have the quiet time. 

Be still and know that I am God...

So often I take these tasks of motherhood as that, tasks. 

I make them into these dumb, mundane jobs that have to be done.  Nothing fun about them, right?

And when I think of it that way, life seems to become lackluster. 

Be still...

And in the stillness I pray...

And I feel the tension melt away.  He restores my soul, quite literally and I can see through my blessings glasses this life I was given. 

So rather than: We have this dumb party.  Yeah.  Up making stupid cookies.  Who cares.  This is so pointless. 

I am choosing to think: I get to go to Emma's Christmas party with her!  It will be so fun to see her with all of her little friends, celebrating together.  I'm going to make special cookies for her special day  so she will know she can always count on me. 

I'm choosing to think this way because 1) if I don't I may just lose my mind.  and 2) Because I've made the commitment to step up to the plate when I am stressed/tired/fatigued and/or grumpy and boldly come before the throne and be straight up with God.  I cannot do this alone.  I need your help.  I need your power. 

And he delivers.  Of course he delivers!  He is God for crying out loud!!! And in the stillness I know that.  I know that He's here to help.  I am not alone. 

And I am aware of all he has blessed me with. 

What are your blessings today?  Do you have your blessing-glasses on or are you muddling through life griping about all you have to do? 

A little shift in perspective can turn your whole world around friends. 

Happy Friday!  My love you you all :)

Oh Christmas Tree

The day after Thanksgiving we always go and get our Christmas tree. 
 
If you don't do this, you should.  I highly recommend it. 
 
It's so nice to be able to get our tree on Black Friday and then have the rest of the weekend to just relax, ease into the holiday season, and decorate to our hearts content. 
 
It seems like if you put off getting your tree that things always come up and then you are stuck getting your tree way close to Christmas. 
 
Here's Emma on the horse drawn wagon. 
Here's Nick with his buddy, his dad.  We've gone with his mom and dad to get our tree every year we've had kids.  It's always super fun.  It makes me glad we planned our family and our plan to live close to our familys. 
We always go out to the tree fields on horse drawn wagons.  These are some worn out horsies. 
Here's my world standing in front of our tree.  We've never had too hard of a time picking a tree.  After the entire thing is suffocated with lights and ornaments it's hard to see it anyway. 
My little snowmen.  If you look closely you'll see that he had me put his hat in top of the snowman's hat. 
And ta-da!  Here's the finished product!!!
 
Love getting a fresh tree every year!  And going to chop it down ourselves makes for some priceless memories...the hot cocoa, the bells on the horses, it's all just magical. 
 
Have you put your tree up?  What are your Christmas tree traditions?

8-Mile

This is my husband.  For those of you new to this planet, his name is Nick. 

Yeah, he's pretty great.  

He's a Bear's fan so this is one of his many, many Chicago Bear's hats. 

Yeah.  

When we are out choosing a Christmas tree in miserable weather, this hat is appropriate.  

When you wear in in the gym after swimming, your wife will call you "8-mile".  Just so we're all on the same page here.  

Thought I would write about Nick because, well, quite frankly life has been all about homeschooling and Christmas decorating lately, and a smaller amount about this guy.  

Not that he minds.  He's not very whiny.  Usually.  Slide a plate of beef towards him around dinner and he's usually complacent with whatever is going on around here.  

Oh there's a giant 2000 piece puzzle on the dining room table?  No problem.  

Oh you washed plaster down the drain?  No problem, I'll take care of it.  

Oh you put radiator fluid in our transmission?  thanks for letting me know.  

Seriously, all things considered, this guy puts up with a lot from me.  

That latest has been that Nick has this teeny-tiny problem called snoring.  So much so that I haven't been able to sleep and therefore function and therefore get along with anyone in the whole wide world.  

So Nick has started wearing Breathe-right strips to bed.  You can tell he hates wearing them but he does without complaining.  I love this man with my whole heart ladies.  

Yesterday Nick got a ticket on our street for not using his turn signal.  We live in a neighborhood and our street is short...on our side of the street there are only 3 houses for crying out loud.  Oh yes, and it was 4 in the morning.  lots of people out, ya know.  Anyway, I'm not mad about the ticket or anything, we just find it kind of weird.  But we also find it nice to know that the police are out and about protecting us while we are all sleeping.  

Anywho, Nick just felt really stressed about it and I feel bad that he feels stressed.  He shouldn't have to worry about things.  He works so hard and does so much for all of us.  

Including listening to me nag him. 

And he lets me call him 8-mile. :)



Eddie the Elf

This year we began the

Elf on the Shelf tradition.  It's popularity is spreading like wild fire.  In case you haven't heard of it or you've heard of it but don't know about it, here's the scoop.  The elf "appears"  every year and is around on a mission from Santa to find out if the children are behaving.  The children can name him and can talk to him but he can't talk back to them (are you surprised?) and they aren't allowed to touch him.

Our elf appeared while we were out getting our Christmas tree the day after Christmas.  He came from Santa with a book, which we eagerly read.  The book instructs you to name him, so we gave him the name Eddie.  Isn't that cute?  I love our kiddos so much.

Anyway, Eddie likes to roam around the house.  I've got to tell you, I was a little skeptical about the elf.  I was a little scared that they would figure out that he wasn't really moving, but so far, they are over the moon for Eddie.  They absolutely think that he is moving on his own and it is so fun to watch them.  When he "moves" one of the children announces to the other that "Eddie's moved"  and then the other instantly drops what they are doing to join their sibling on the hunt for Eddie.

Here's Eddie in Cal's transom window.

Eddie's checking out the turtles

Here's Eddie from a different angle...he's just "hanging out" by Susan and Anakin, the sleeping turtles.  

Love this one.  Here's Eddie telling Jesus stories.  The kids told me that babies love stories so Baby Jesus must have loved stories...pretty neat to think about =)

In a handle on our secretary.  

Marshmallow bubble bath.  Love this one =)

All of the little people nativity pieces listening to Eddie tell stories.  Evidently Eddie is quite the story teller.  

Had to show you this one too.  Eddie was in my mixer one time and he left these footprints in some flour when he moved.  The children are now absolutely convinced that he walks around our house :)  

We are having so much fun with Eddie and I just can't wait for it to continue!  Are you doing an Elf on the Shelf this year?  Please let me know what fun things your Elf has done :) You can buy your own elf here.

You get yourself one, I have one, we'll swap elf stories, it will be grand!

Note: This blog contains affiliate links.  You can read my full disclosure policy here

Homeschooling it up at Ho Ping

We are studying the Medieval period this year in school and for the past two weeks we have been studying China.  It's really been fascinating.  I've learned so much too...about what colors mean, why there are lions outside of buildings, folklore about Panda's coloring, and so much more!  

Last night we went out to eat for what else?  but Chinese food, of course!  We sought out a truly authentic restaurant, not just fried rice and fortune cookies.  

I must say, we had so much fun!  The children were remarkably well behaved and it was just a lot of fun.  You could tell that Emma was really paying attention and kind of "getting it".  


Do you like these guys?  They were outside of the restaurant.  Emma thought the one on the left resembled the Warlord from the book we had read:







 The Warlord's Puzzle, which was a really good book.

The kids LOVE hot tea so they were thrilled that they could have it.  I think Cal is kind of drunk on tea...four glasses in :)
This was one of our dishes...beef and scallops...yum!  We  did have to talk though that in Medival China meat was very rare and so they really would have just had vegetables.  They were kind of like "um, yeah, okay, pass the beef."  
Here's Emma happy to use a fork after trying to use the chop sticks.
This is basically what Emma looked like too!  They are so funny and had so much fun.  Did you know that the Chinese invented chopsticks?  And gunpowder?  And the crossbow?  And steel?  

Fascinating, huh?  

Anyway, all in all, we had a great time.  We really enjoyed the dinner and if we have to drop some money for the lesson to really SINK in and make some memories  I think it is worth it.  

Turkey Day with Dr. Sheldon Cooper

I had a very nice post about science project day on the back burner...

Then I realized I must have deleted all of the pictures I took off of the camera! 

Bad Mommy! 

So you get this post. 

By the way, hope ya'll had a great Thanksgiving.  We had a very relaxing day. 

The day before the big kick off to the holidays, Cal had an early pick up at preschool.  I picked him up and to our surprise they sang some Turkey songs for us.  So stinkin' cute!

Here he is showing the tail feathers.  Goodness I love this boy!  It is so super hard to get him to look at the camera so this is a good picture!

The dslr can record video too and the whole time I thought I was recording him, only to find out towards the end that I in fact, wasn't.  Bad Mommy again :(  But I got to see it and experience it and he was really proud of himself.  That's what matters, right?  But I did realize that maybe it's time to take a class to figure out how to work this computer/camera thing I've been blessed with.

This weekend the kids spent the night at my parent's house.  My sister was home from MBA school and was staying with them.  She texted me "your son keeps telling me he's smarter than me.  Oh my gosh, he's Sheldon!"

And she is so right!!!


I mean, we can't be the only ones who see the similarities, right?  Cal acts like him ALL of the time!  

Even soft kitty.  I sang the song for him ONCE and now I have to sing it when he's scared.  I should mention that he has never seen the show, of course.  But it never fails he makes me start from the beginning if I stop in the middle.  What is with this silly boy?

And like Sheldon he has to have everything EXACTLY the way he thinks in his head it should be.  We've even caught him telling Emma "you're in my spot."

Oh goodness!  Sheldon is definitely based on someone with Asperger's and oh boy, they got it dead on!  

Hope you and your family had a great holiday...whether you are blessed with a Sheldon or not :)